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Audience Inventory 2013: Free to Air results

Readers declare ABC our most Trustworthy network, but there's bad news for Nine and Seven.

70aiThe results of TV Tonight’s Audience Inventory for 2013 declare ABC is again our most Trustworthy Free to Air network and Nine is still the most Untrustworthy.

Now in its fifth year, there were more than 1200 surveys completed by site readers, asking questions on how we watch television and gauging our interest on the most pressing issues in Australian TV.

ABC1 ranked as the most-watched channel, with the network voted the most Reliable for starting on time, most Trustworthy and Best at Rescheduling Cancelled Shows. ABC2 and ABC News 24 were deemed the Best Multichannels, while iview was a runaway winner in the questions on Catch-up TV.

Nine was voted most Untrustworthy network when viewers were asked to consider if a series would be completed or remain in the same timeslot. But the gap has closed with Seven, now getting a big slap from readers over scheduling matters.

Seven has snatched the “Most Unreliable” title from Nine, because of too many primetime shows not starting on time. This has significantly impacted on the network brand, taking a dive in questions on Trustworthiness, and its ability to reschedule cancelled shows.

Seven’s drop was good news for TEN with viewers recognising it is trying to stick close to its advertised schedule.

Once again the issues of ‘Keeping an EPG up to date’, ‘Shows starting / finishing on time’ and ‘Finishing a series once it starts’ are far and away the biggest concerns to viewers. These three questions have been voted the top 3 issues across all 5 years of the survey. There were many comments from viewers about inaccurate EPGs not reflecting starting times of shows.

On the question of second-screens, Facebook was the led by a country mile, followed by Twitter and online websites. Official network apps ranked last, with Zeebox the preferred choice over Jump-In and Fango. While other industry surveys which have suggested over 60% “online Australians” are second-screening, only 31% of a similar sample group indicated they second-screen Every Day. About  one third indicated a few times a week / month, and nearly another third indicated ‘Never’ or ‘Less than Once a Month.’

Tablets have now out-stripped PC / Mac as our preferred device for second-screens. But PC / Mac remains our preferred device for catch-up television.

ABC’s iview completely dominated on the question of Catch-Up services and their satisfaction level. Catch-up services for Seven, Nine and TEN also pulled significant results in the “Very Disappointing” vote.

78% of respondents said they had never been asked to participate in a Ratings survey, and only 11% had been asked in the last 5 years.

Several  issues were put to readers regarding Free to Air television for the first time.

Of those, ranking as Very Important were:

Completing the installation of the NBN
Banning gambling ads
Making TV ratings = Metro + Regionals
Better bandwidth for multichannels
Catch-Up TV adding content swiftly after broadcast
Less Twitter included during broadcasts
Banning alcohol ads

Issues considered Important were:

Maintaining local content in regional Australia
More Aussie content on Digital Channels
Starting programmes “on the half hour”

No Opinion:

Dropping Reach Rule for Broadcasters

Not Important:

Banning Junk food

Here are the results on Free to Air questions, with comment.

* denotes multiple answers allowed

Which of the following do you watch regularly? *
Free to Air Commercial TV 84%
Free to Air Public Broadcaster TV 55%
Subscription TV 37%
Community TV 2%

Public broadcasters rise slightly, at the expense of commercials. Others remain exactly the same.

Do you have Digital or Analogue TV?
HD TV 79%
HD Set top Box 17%
SD Set top Box 3%
Analogue TV 2%

Which FTA channels do you watch regularly? *
ABC1 76%
TEN 67%
Seven 61%
Nine 59%
ABC2 47%
SBS ONE 45%
ELEVEN 43%
GO! 36%
ABC News 24 33%
GEM 33%
7mate 33%
7TWO 29%
SBS 2 26%
ONE 25%
WIN (Regional) 12%
Southern Cross 12%
Prime 11%
ABC3 8%
NITV 3%
NBN 3%
Community TV 2%
Imparja 0%

Up: ABC1, ABC2, ABC News 24, SBS 2
Down: Seven, ELEVEN, GO!, 7mate

Which PVRs do you have:
Other 38%
No PVR 28%
iQ / iQ2 25%
Tivo 5%
MyStar 4%

Which network is the most reliable for starting on time?
ABC 60%
Foxtel 20%
SBS 9%
TEN 8%
Seven 2%
Nine 2%

TEN shows improvement. Slight drop for Foxtel. No change in the order.

And the most unreliable?
Seven 48%
Nine 43%
TEN 7%
ABC 1%
Foxtel 1%
SBS 0%

Seven takes the crown from Nine this year with a big rise. There is also a big improvement by TEN.

Which network is the most trustworthy at delivering your shows?
ABC 53%
Foxtel 21%
TEN 7%
SBS 6%
Nine 6%
Seven 6%

ABC wins again. Seven takes a tumble with a noticeable drop.

And most untrustworthy?
Nine 48%
Seven 33%
TEN 16%
ABC 1%
Foxtel 1%
SBS 0%

Nine still wins this but the gap is no longer as wide because Seven doubles its numbers. TEN also shows some healthy improvement.

Who is best at rescheduling cancelled shows?
ABC 33%
TEN 22%
Seven 16%
Foxtel 15%
Nine 9%
SBS 4%

ABC and TEN improve but Seven slips.

And worst?
Nine 48%
Seven 33%
TEN 17%
ABC 1%
Foxtel 1%
SBS 0%

Nine “wins” this yet again, but Seven makes a big rise, while TEN improves.

Which do you use for TV guide info? *
On screen EPG 58%
Online guide 44%
Foxtel EPG 32%
App on smartphone / tablet 27%
Weekly Newspaper Guide 23%
Daily Newspaper guide 10%
Magazine guide 8%
ICE Guide 6%
Other 2%

Up: On screen EPG, App on smartphone / tablet,
Down: Online guide, Weekly Newspaper Guide.

And which do you most prefer?
On screen EPG 30%
Foxtel EPG 20%
Online guide 17%
Weekly Newspaper Guide 12%
App on smartphone / tablet 12%
ICE Guide 4%
Magazine guide 3%
Daily Newspaper guide 2%
Other 1%

Which best sums up your position on switching from analogue to digital ?
Already switched 96%
Will switch by end of 2013 3%
Not sure 1%

Degree of satisfaction with multichannels
Excellent: None
Very good: ABC2, ABC News 24
Good: GO!, Gem, ELEVEN, 7TWO, ONE, 7mate, SBS 2
Fair: None
Terrible: None
Not Applicable: ABC3, NITV

Most improved: ABC News 24, GEM, SBS 2.

Which second-screen platforms do you use regularly? *
Facebook 57%
Twitter 39%
Internet websites 39%
Blogs / Forums 24%
Zeebox 11%
Other Option 8%
Jump-In 5%
Fango 3%

Up: Zeebox makes a good debut, Jump-In.
Down: Internet websites, Twitter.

How often do you use second-screen whilst watching TV?
Every day 31%
Never 26%
A few times a week 22%
A few times a month 8%
“Event TV” only 6%
Less than once a month 5%
About once a month 2%

Which is your preferred second-screen device?
Tablet 39%
PC or Mac 32%
Smartphone 29%

Tablet now overtakes PC or Mac.

How often do you watch official Catch-Up services?
Rarely or never 31%
Once or twice a month 26%
A few times a week 21%
About once a week 17%
Once a day or more 5%

Which official Catch-Up TV services do you use? *
iView (ABC) 77%
PLUS7 (Seven) 30%
TEN.com.au (TEN) 29%
SBS on Demand (SBS) 29%
Foxtel Go (Foxtel) 22%
Catch-Up NineMSN (Nine) 19%

Which device do you primarily watch official Catch-Up services?
PC or Mac 56%
Tablet 25%
TV 15%
Other 2%
Smartphone 2%

Please rate your satisfaction with each Catch-Up Service
EXCELLENT iView
NO OPINION / NOT APPLICABLE: PLUS7, Catch-Up, NineMSN, TEN.com.au, SBS On Demand, Foxtel Go.

Do you use an IPTV service?
Apple TV / iTunes 47%
Other Option 26%
Telstra TBox 11%
BBC iPlayer 6%
FetchTV 6%
Quickflix 4%

Up: Other Option, Fetch TV
Down: BBC iPlayer, Quickflix

Rate any or all of the following FTA issues:
VERY IMPORTANT:
Keeping an EPG up to date
Shows starting / finishing on time
Finishing a series once it starts
Completing the installation of the NBN
Banning gambling ads
Making primary channels HD after digital switch-off ends
Punishment for breaches of the Code of Practice
Fast-tracking
Reducing on screen clutter (watermarks etc)
Playing sport live and in HD
Catch-up TV
More funding for public broadcasters
Making TV ratings = Metro + Regionals
Better bandwidth for multichannels
Catch-Up TV adding content swiftly after broadcast
ABC maintaining in-house productions
Less Twitter included during broadcasts
Banning alcohol ads

IMPORTANT:
Promos that fairly represent the show
Maintaining local content in regional Australia
More Aussie content on Digital Channels
More subtitles for the hearing impaired
Letting credits roll at the end of a show
Starting programmes “on the half hour”

NO OPINION:
Dropping Reach Rule for Broadcasters
Implementing new Anti-Siphoning List rules

SOMEWHAT IMPORTANT:
None

NOT IMPORTANT:
3D broadcasts
Merging public broadcasters
Banning Junk food

Which is the more offensive on TV?
None 43%
Violence 38%
Strong language 10%
Sexual content & references 8%

Have you ever participated in a Ratings survey?
No. Never been asked. 78%
Yes, in the last 5 years. 11%
Yes, more than 10 years ago. 6%
No, but I have been asked to participate. 3%
Yes in the last 5 -10 years. 2%

Meanwhile 88% rated the website Excellent or Very Good while less than 1% voted it Disappointing. 69% of readers visited the site Once a Day or more.

NB: Percentage shares have been rounded.

TOMORROW: Pay TV results.

11 Responses

  1. david, question.
    with “Please rate your satisfaction with each Catch-Up Service” you’re obviously showing the most common answer, but if people dont have an opinion on it or havnt even used a service, why not show the next most common answer, so theres actually some form of feed back on the others?

    also is “catch-up” an actual catch-up service? if so, what channel does it service and where can i find it?

  2. I see Nine managed to celebrate their crowning as most unreliable network by suddenly springing a double episode of Underbelly on us last night, contrary to all published guides. I wonder how many people recording the show missed the end of the series due to this bit of shenanigans.

  3. wow 78% of people on the site have never done a ratings survey…. there has got to be a way to use a bigger sample size for ratings! And the fact that you need a landline to participate also seems a problem these days…

  4. The big Q. is do the Networks read and act on the results A. No otherwise if they acted on the last survey there would have been no need for this one? well done David at least there is one person that cares what viewers care about!!

  5. Another great survey which the networks need to read and actually understand the importance of. A few things I’d like to mention
    1: On Screen Twitter\Network App Clutter. Why do the networks think I want to decipher the idiotic comments popping up on screen? If I wanted to discuss the show, I would come here and discuss it with intelligent people, not post random crap to twitter and squee when it comes up on the show
    2: When a show is pulled from the channel, it should be either immediately made available in full online or continue it online each week so viewers can finish the season
    3: Each network needs a decent IOS app for online catchup – see iView for ideas. Ensure it contains all first run prime-time shows from primary and digital channels. They should also work with all TV manufacturers to provide a replicated app for all Smart TVs. As with Quickflix to provide and app on…

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